Dr. Rodney Plunket

The apostle Paul was actually converted to Jesus while on the road to persecute Christians.  That conversion radically changed Paul’s life.  He changed from being an ardent opponent to being one of Christianity’s greatest proclaimers.  He loved Jesus with such fervor and joy.  As a result he lived to share the message.

Our lesson this morning is focused upon a portion of a letter in the Bible written by the apostle Paul. The letter is called Ephesians, and the portion we want to focus upon is chapter two verses (vv) 1-10.  We will begin by looking at the first three verses of that New Testament passage.  In those verses, Paul describes lives that are not connected to God.  Here is what Paul says:

In the past you were dead because you sinned and fought against God.  You followed the ways of this world and obeyed the devil.  He rules the world, and his spirit has power over everyone who doesn’t obey God.  Once we were also ruled by the selfish desires of our bodies and minds.  We had made God angry, and we were going to be punished like everyone else.

Paul presents a powerful picture here.  Let’s take time to understand it.  Notice that Paul refers to people being dead, but they are not physically dead.  They are spiritually dead because of the power of sin.  Paul here is not just saying that people have committed sins and, as a result, need to be forgiven.  Paul is saying that sin has such malicious control over our lives that we are spiritually dead.  We cannot do a thing about our spiritual state, because we are dead.  We can make no headway, because we are dead.  We cannot get up and try again and try to do it better this time, because we are dead.  The spirit of the devil has a power over us that controls and warps and kills.

I think Paul’s words have a hard time hitting home today, because we often do not see ourselves as having ever been really controlled by evil.  Our world has taught us to gloss over and sanitize sin.  So let’s stop and think.  Let’s focus on just one big category of sin.  Let’s focus upon selfishness.

Many Christians have come to realize that selfishness or pride is the primary sin back of all sins.  For example, William Temple said, “there is only one sin, and it is characteristic of the whole world.  It is the self-will which prefers ‘my’ way to God’s––which puts ‘me’ in the center where only God is in place” (quoted by Keith Miller, The Becomers, p 85).

Stop and think about all the suffering caused because people want their own way and refuse to put the needs of others even on a par with their own.  How many of us have belittled others and driven them to tears just to make sure that we stayed on top and strengthened our power base?  How many of us have manipulated others like pawns on a chessboard in order to feed our egos and fatten our pride?  How many parents have lashed out at children when all the children have done is to embarrass the parents?  How many of us have pretended to seek truth when in fact we were really seeking to get everyone to see things the way we already saw them?  Our supposed search was a sham, because our real goal was to convince everyone else to see as we saw, to believe as we believed, and to confirm that we were right and our thinking superior.  Self, self, self––let’s be honest, we have all been caught up in the love of self.

That love of self is not just a sin.  It is a sign of the power of sin that lives within and controls.  And it is the power of sin that causes us to be spiritually dead.  And when we are spiritually dead we are cut off from any opportunity to change and grow into the people God created us to be.  Dead plants can’t change and grow.  Dead animals can’t change and grow.  Dead people can’t either.  And outside of Christ we are dead.  We are unable to become who we were born to be.

I want to be free from the power of that dominating and oppressing sin that strangles the spiritual life from me.  I want to be free to become the person I was born to be.  Let’s sing together a song that asks God make us more free.

We have heard the bad news.  Outside of Christ we are dead because of the power of evil over our lives.

Now to the Good News.  Look at what Paul says in verses (vv) 4-9 of this chapter.

But God was merciful!  We were dead because of our sins, but God loved us so much that he made us alive with Christ, and God’s wonderful kindness is what saves you.  God raised us from death to life with Christ Jesus, and he has given us a place beside Christ in heaven.  God did this so that in the future world he could show how truly good and kind he is to us because of what Christ Jesus has done.  You were saved by faith in God, who treats us much better than we deserve.  This is God’s gift to you, and not anything you have done on your own.  It isn’t something you have earned, so there is nothing you can brag about.

We were dead in sin, but God.  We could not do a thing to advance toward God’s dream for our lives, but God.  We were controlled by the power of sin, but God.  “We were also ruled by the by the selfish desires of our bodies and minds,” but God.  The turnaround in this passage is the two little words, “but God.”  “But God was merciful.”  “But God . . . loved us so much that he made us alive with Christ.”  But God . . . raised us from death to life with Christ Jesus.”  But God . . . has given us a place beside Christ in heaven.”  “But God . . . saved [us] by faith in God” and that salvation is a “gift to you, and not anything you have done on your own.”

What a powerful message.  Please hear it.  God saw people in their spiritual deadness.  We were the exact opposite of the dream God had when he created us.  I’m sure that the sight of people under the power and control of evil must repulse God.  But God responded with mercy.  But God responded with love.  He gave us the free gift of salvation which we receive by trusting in that gift, by having faith in the saving power of Jesus.

That free gift transforms.  Believers are no longer dead in sin.  They are no longer controlled by the evil one.  They now have a new life in Christ.  They have been raised “from death to life with Christ Jesus.”  Alive from the dead by the power of the risen Christ, that’s what a Christian is.  A Christian is alive from the dead by the power of the risen Christ.

Please hear Paul’s words.  Please take them in.  The hold of sin and evil over our lives can be broken by God’s free gift of salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We are going now to hear a testimonial of a believer here at Broadway who has experienced the death that sin’s power brings.  But he has also experienced the new life that Christ gives.  Please listen and see the Good News alive in my brother, Sean Whiting .

Paul in Ephesians 2: 10 packs an unbelievable amount of teaching in very few words.  Please look at that verse with me.  “For we are God’s masterpiece.  He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”  From death to masterpiece, because of the mercy, love, and power of God––what an awesome progression.  That is the progression of this great passage.

Paul wants his readers to know that even after they are saved by the mercy and love of God and even after their lives are changed, even then the good words that they do are not something they can boast about.  Those good works come because God recreates believers in Christ Jesus.  And the good works themselves are the good works that God planned for them to do before they even decided to do them.  What an incredible God!  What an incredible work that God does within those who trust in God’s risen Son.

Since this morning we have a focus on Broadway’s mission programs, I think it is appropriate to end with a story from one of our missionaries.  This story comes to us from Tim Talley who is a missionary in Kenya.  It is a story of two funerals that took places in Kenya just a few days of one another.

The funeral was well attended.  In fact, it may have been the biggest funeral that Malindi has ever seen.  The rich and the famous of Nairobi had flown down to be there.  In fact, Kenya Airways added two extra flights to Malindi in order to accommodate those who wanted to show their last respects.

He was a popular guy, my friend Johnny.  Johnny Hellier was a British Kenyan, well known throughout East Africa as a successful rally car driver.  He had even been the national champion one year.  Johnny Hellier had it all . . . Sean Connery type good looks . . . athleticism . . . charm.  He had a successful car repair business, family money, a loving wife, and two admiring children.  I always felt lucky to have him as my friend.  But just in his early fifties, he had died of cancer.

Johnny was also a great friend to our whole missionary team throughout our years in Malindi.  I had tried many times to talk to Johnny about Christianity.  He was a very good man, but to my knowledge he never made any commitment to our Lord.

There was no lack of good things to say about Johnny’s life the day I spoke at his funeral.  Yet it proved difficult to give much comfort to the family.  The faith he had rejected in life left no hope in death.  It was a sad funeral.  The sweet reminiscing about years gone by could not fill the deafening silence about the years to come.

The funeral was well attended.  The poor and lowly from as far away as Marafa walked and rode their bicycles to be there.  The country bus didn’t have a route that far in the bush, nor would they plan one.  The profit wouldn’t be worth the damage on the bus.

Few people really knew Elizabeth Sidi, the little girl named after my oldest daughter.  She was 18 months old when she died, but looked half her age.  She had never had a crib.  I don’t think she ever had a pair of shoes or ever wore anything new.  She didn’t even have a house, just a mud hovel that had fallen down during the last rains.  Her father had no job, no family money . . . only seven kids and a small plot of land to farm.

Elizabeth died of cerebral malaria in the hospital in Malindi.  I donated a pint of blood a few hours before she died.  They joked that “surely the blood of a white missionary would save her.”  It didn’t.  I carried her body, her family, and wood for her coffin to her home the next day.

There was no lack of good things to say about Elizabeth’s short life the day I spoke at her funeral.  My words of comfort joined the encouraging words of many other Christians who spoke.

Elizabeth Sidi was the daughter of Jacob Safari.  Jacob is the man who had an older daughter attacked by a crocodile a few years ago.  His second born son drowned in the same river last year.  He seems to have had more than his share of disaster and misfortune.  He is a man of great faith.  He speaks little English; he is poverty stricken; yet he is undoubtedly the greatest communicator in the churches of Christ in Malindi District.

Jacob said some incredible things at his daughter’s funeral . . . basically thanking God for the gift of his daughter for a short time.  And then he gave her back to God.

The faith Elizabeth’s parents had accepted years ago now brought its dividend of hope.  It was a joyful funeral.  The sweet expectation for a reunion one day filled the void left in their broken hearts.

I spoke at both of these funerals within a few days of each other.  Two funerals couldn’t have been more different.  One lasted thirty-five minute, the other all night long.  One had elaborate hors d’oeuvres served as we sat by a swimming pool.  The other had cornmeal mush and bitter greens served as we sat on the ground by a campfire.  One was bitter, the other bittersweet.

Johnny had everything, but he had nothing.  Elizabeth Sidi had nothing, but she had everything.

Feel the power of the new life.  Hear the masterpieces that God is creating among poor natives in Kenya.  Their faith is so real and so rich. God is delivering them from the power of sin and giving them a new life which is transforming them into works of divine art.  God wants to do the same with your life.  God wants your life to be all that God dreamed before you were born.

Please do not leave here without the power of God alive within you!  Please come and let us take you into the presence of our merciful God.  Please submit to God’s masterpiece making power.  Please come now as we stand and sing.